1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic mail system and more specifically to an electronic mail system which enables a client side to check whether or not a mail has been read.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the spread of a personal computer, the field of information communication is more increasingly occupied by an electronic mail system in which character, audio, picture or other information is transmitted/received in the form of a mail between client terminal devices through a computer network. In the electronic mail system constructed through a wide area network, that is, in a distributed electronic mail system, the computer for providing a service to the client-side computer, a so-called server is generally installed on the network. The transmission/receipt of information between the client terminal devices is accomplished through the server.
Unlike a telephone communication, such an electronic mail system does not allow the clients to communicate the information directly to each other. Thus, a particular executive system is needed in order to check whether or not a transmitted electronic mail has been really read by a receiving side (transmit opponent), that is, to check whether the electronic mail has been unread or read. Heretofore, such an electronic mail nonread-read execution has been generally performed by the server in the electronic mail system.
Depending on the function of the electronic mail system which the client terminal device using the electronic mail belongs to, the service available to the client terminal device is limited. Therefore, in order that the executive function is used by the client terminal device requiring the above-described electronic mail nonread-read execution, there is a need for adding this type of function to the server in the electronic mail system which the client terminal device belongs to. Consequently, it is impossible to add the nonread-read executive function by the intention of the client.
In addition, the electronic mail nonread-read execution has been heretofore performed on the server side in this manner, and thus all the receiving sides (transmit opponents) are to be executed for checking whether or not the mail has been read. As a result, the receiving side to be executed cannot be specified on a client-by-client basis. More disadvantageously, the conventional executive system cannot comply with an alias expansion function for collectively executing a plurality of receiving sides (transmit opponents) as a single receiving side (transmit opponent).
It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic mail system capable of introducing an electronic mail nonread-read executive function by the intention of a client without considerably changing an existing electronic mail system, and a terminal device for use in the system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electronic mail system capable of optionally selecting a receiving side to be executed for checking whether or not an electronic mail has been read, and a terminal device for use in the system.
It is a still another object of the present invention to provide an electronic mail system capable of performing an electronic mail nonread-read execution in response to an alias expansion function, and a terminal device for use in the system.
In the electronic mail system of the present invention for transmitting/receiving the electronic mail between the terminal devices connected to each other via a server on a network, the terminal device comprises executive means for performing the electronic mail nonread-read execution for checking whether or not the receiving side has read the electronic mail. This executive means performs the electronic mail nonread-read execution in response to header information of the transmitted/received electronic mail.
This executive means has library means in which the receiving side to be executed for checking whether or not the electronic mail has been read is recorded, whereby the electronic mail having the recorded receiving side is executed for checking whether or not it has been read by the receiving side.
This executive means comprises storage means for storing electronic mail nonread-read information; library means having a library table in which the receiving side to be executed for checking whether or not the electronic mail has been read is recorded; executive control means for determining whether or not the electronic mail to be transmitted is to be executed for checking whether or not it is read and for writing the contents stored in the storage means; request addition means for adding request information for read notice to the electronic mail to be executed for checking whether or not it is read; request judgement means for judging whether or not the request information is added to the received electronic mail; and read information send means for sending read information when the electronic mail with the request information added is received.
This executive means further comprises means for performing an alias expansion, whereby a single electronic mail is executed for checking whether or not it has been read by a plurality of receiving sides in accordance with the result of the alias expansion.
According to the present invention, the client terminal device side is provided with the nonread-read executive function for checking whether or not the receiving side has read the electronic mail. The out-going side client terminal device adds the request information for read information notice to the electronic mail and transmits the electronic mail to the in-coming side client terminal device. After the in-coming side (receiving side) client terminal device reads the electronic mail, it then sends the read information to the out-going side client terminal device.
Therefore, the nonread-read execution can be achieved by adding the function to the client terminal device side alone without considerably changing the existing electronic mail system. In addition, the client terminal device side can optionally set the receiving side to be executed for checking whether or not the electronic mail is read, and thus the present invention has higher convenience.
The above and further objects and features of the invention will more fully be apparent from the following detailed description with accompanying drawings.